Carbon Neutrality in Architectural Design

3 units

Team WashU aims to create a solar home to educate the public on a state-of-the-art, carbon-neutral, adaptive healing space for occupational therapy services using innovative interior, architectural, and system design to meet the users' physical, social, and emotional challenges. The study will focus on design, materials, and renewable energy by illuminating the role of carbon in the built environment, and it will help students understand the principles and application of carbon assessment methods and Life Cycle Analytical (LCA) tools. Students will integrate carbon-neutral design principles into design, fabrication, and construction processes, testing the limits of conventional sustainable design practices and developing new strategies for designing carbon-neutral buildings. Students will work individually to create preliminary design schematics (and their associated structural morphologies, enclosure systems, and MEP systems). They will be fused around a single design strategy developed as a group design project, analyzed for its environmental impact and carbon footprint, and finally built by the student team. The course encourages students to participate in the fabrication and construction process developed as collaborative research, design, and construction effort and support professional consultants or manufacturing partners.